Panel Chair
Panel Chair – Adopt London East. £600 per full day panel.
To chair the adoption panel of the Adoption Agency to enable these panels to make professionally sound and procedurally correct recommendations concerning children and carers.
• To act as a panel member and chair meeting of the adoption panel of the Adopt London East Adoption Agency. To be available to chair meetings of the panel fortnightly;
• To read all panel papers carefully and critically;
• To satisfy the requirements of the Adopt London East Adoption Agency protocol for panel members;
• To take part in the interviewing of prospective adoption panel members and advise the Agency on appointment to the panels;
• To bring to the attention of the Adopt London East Adoption Agency situations in which panel members are not meeting the requirements of the protocol for panel members;
• To ensure that the panel operates within the relevant law, regulation and guidance, particularly the Children Act 1989, Adoption Act 1976, Adoption Agency Regulation 1983 and 1997 National Adoption Standards, National Minimum Standards and Adoption and Children Act 2002;
• To ensure that the panel operates within the Policies of the Adopt London East Adoption Agency and related procedures as they become available;
• To facilitate the involvement of panel members, social workers, applicants, children and young people and birth family members in accordance with the Policies of the Adopt London East Adoption Agency;
• To ensure that the panel addresses all relevant procedural and practice issues in relation to the main categories of item before the panel namely whether adoption is the best interest of the child, whether applicants are suitable adopters, whether a particular match is in the interests of the child;
• To ensure that the panel addresses all relevant procedural and practice issues in relation to other matters before the panel for example, in relation to adoption support and whether the child should be freed for adoption;
• To facilitate the panels in their role of monitoring the quality of work presented to the panel;
• To bring to the attention of the management of Adopt London East Adoption Agency significant practice and procedural issues which arise in individual cases and in general;
• To keep abreast of current practice issues in adoption and family placement and seek to promote best practice within the panel and the agency;
• To assist the Agency to identify training needs within the panels and the Agency and to attend panel training days;
• To prepare together with the panel adviser an annual report for senior management;
• The duties of the post could not vary from time to time as a result of new legislation, changes in technology or policy changes and in that case appropriate training may be given to enable the post holder to undertake this new/ varied work.
About Havering and Team
Adopt London consists of four Regional Adoption Agencies (RAA) covering the London area, and each area is led by a host local authority. Adopt London East started in October 2019 and is a shared adoption service working on behalf of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, and Tower Hamlets councils, hosted by the London borough of Havering.
Adopt London provides an opportunity to collaborate across all of London, making a real difference to the lives of children at a local and national level. The vision for RAAs is to achieve excellent outcomes for children and adults affected by adoption and ensure services delivered are of the highest standard. Since its inception in 2019, Adopt London East has rapidly embedded a quality support service for adoptive families within our East London community.
The successful applicant will be employed by the London Borough of Havering (host local authority) within Adopt London East, as part of adoption services working on behalf of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, and Tower Hamlets councils.
As the host local authority, we can truly say that Havering is a fantastic place to live and work!
Benefiting from excellent transport links, being only 18 minutes from London Liverpool Street Station, with our offices located centrally in Romford with easy access to all four boroughs supported in Adopt London East. We also offer staff onsite subsidised car parking in Havering, making our offices easily accessible via the M25, A12, A406 and A127.
As the employing authority, Havering is committed to providing a healthy work-life balance, whether that be via flexible working or through our corporate health and wellbeing initiatives. We are proud to be a forward-thinking organisation that embraces new ways of working to benefit our employees and residents alike
About You
What does the successful candidate have?
Inc. any professional qualification requirements
• Knowledge and understanding of the Children Act 1989, 2004, Working Together 2013 and other relevant legislation and frameworks.
• Knowledge of current policy and practice,
• Knowledge of child development and attachment, understanding the impact of parental problems and the short/long-term impact of abuse/neglect on children.
• Demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment to, working within an equal opportunities framework.
• Knowledge of issues involved in working with children with disabilities.
• Significant experience